Blake bodyguard to keep attorney
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Robert Blake’s bodyguard told a judge Tuesday that he wanted an attorney hired by the actor to continue representing him on a charge of conspiring to murder the actor’s wife. Judge Lloyd Nash accepted Earle Caldwell’s decision after hearing from the bodyguard and an independent attorney who advised Caldwell on the possible conflicts.
Caldwell said he understood everything he was told, including that he could not raise the issue of conflict on appeal if he waived that right. Caldwell is free on $1 million bail posted by Blake.
Blake, 68, has been jailed since his April 18 arrest on charges of murdering Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, on May 4, 2001.
The judge put off ruling on whether Blake can be released on bail.
He said he needed to study the law on issues raised by both sides in a blizzard of motions.
The judge set a June 27 court date and expressed hope that the lawyers would then agree on a preliminary hearing date.
Blake’s attorney, Harland Braun, said outside court it was too early to decide on that because of the volume of evidence.
Comedian Mort Sahl and actor Wilford Brimley attended the hearing.
“We’re 40-year friends,” Sahl said outside. “I think when he gets his day in court, it will all be clarified. I think he’ll be fine.”
Braun’s latest filing Tuesday supported Blake’s bid for bail, suggesting that the fame of the 1970s TV star has permeated the case and affected the investigation.
Braun submitted transcripts of interviews in which detective Ronald Ito, the lead investigator, suggested that he was not given adequate credit for another high-profile case, the murder trial of O.J. Simpson.
Ito, in an interview with stuntman Gary McLarty, a key witness against Blake, said he worked a year on the Simpson case – but only Phillip Vannatter and Tom Lang appeared on television.
Braun claimed in the motion that Ito was upset about being left out.
“It seems that the investigation may have been affected by Mr. Blake’s fame,” Braun said. “Ito was upset that he worked almost a year on the O.J. Simpson case and never got on television like Lang and Vannatter.”